


where the trail leads

by Serie11



Series: Femslash February 2018 [2]
Category: Horizon: Zero Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Urban Fantasy, F/F, Magic, Sarcasm, Witch Aloy, Witchcraft, just girls being pals, killing shit together and liking it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-02
Updated: 2018-02-02
Packaged: 2019-03-12 16:18:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13551021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Serie11/pseuds/Serie11
Summary: Aloy licked her lips as she took in the other woman’s appearance – blood stained and dirty, but her eyes shone wild. “But the best hunters fight with their hands alone,” Aluki commented lowly, eyes dark and low, dangerous.“Those are funny looking hands,” Aloy remarked, staring at Aluki’s spear.





	where the trail leads

 

Aloy followed the remnants of her tracking spell. The imprint of the beast she was hunting was outlined in purple in front of her, but it was fading – she would either have to cast the spell again or track it manually. The only problem was that she was running out of ingredients that she needed for her spells, and only had one more tracking spell in her before she would have to go and find more iron twine. She supposed she could stop by the hardware store on her way back to the apartment but – ugh. She liked carrying everything she needed, and having an empty inventory was the _worst._

She held her spelled bow in her hand, a long piece of carbon that looked like an ugly stick when its magic wasn’t active. Jokes on them, though – Aloy had gotten out of a lot of sticky situations just because no one expected a witch like her to have an actual, physical weapon on her. Take away her spell casting abilities and she’s useless, huh? Not if she had anything to say about it, and oh, yes she was ready to kick someone’s ass.

She skirted around the ruin of a Faro robot, taking note of its location. The magic was up at the moment – it came in waves, and almost all technology was useless when magic was saturating the air. But if the magic wave fell, then there was a chance that she was going to have to fight the robot on the way out, as well as her quarry.

Her black combat boots made little noise against the backdrop of the city. Even without cars the rumble of voices and people and probably a fire somewhere was more than enough to mask the noise Aloy did make. She had half a dozen pouches swinging from a utility belt, all with their own pouches so she could easy organise and grab whatever she needed for a spell on the fly. In the right circles, you could cause riotous panic if you yelled “Blast bomb!”

Beyond that, she was wearing blue and red leather that she’d spelled against flame and impact damage. It was light enough to allow her freedom of movement, but heavy enough to absorb most blunt force blows.

The purple light of her spell dwindled and faded abruptly, and Aloy stood still in the dark lane for a second. There weren’t any feylanterns around, and of course the electric lights wouldn’t be working. She would have to make her own light, and hope that it didn’t attract any untoward attention.

Slowly, she stroked her fingers over the grip of her bow in the combination spell that would wake it. The bow glowed to life, smooth limbs extending, and a bright sparkling string appearing as the spell took hold. Aloy placed her fingers on the string and a glowing arrow of light appeared.

It was light enough to show the way, and it meant that she was armed if anything leapt out of the shadows at her. She cast around until she found a clawmark that resembled the ones at the crime scene that she had left behind. Sheriff Ersa had called her in, citing her expertise at hunting and tracking, to see if she could bring down the beast. Aloy liked to think that it was because Ersa liked her, but it might also just be because Aloy was cheap labour to outsource – she worked alone, and she only charged her services for herself. She knew Ersa appreciated that.

Aloy lofted her bow until she could see the next clawmark, twenty metres away. Going much slower now, she continued to track the beast, uneasy and aware that the slower she went, the more time it would have to find a hiding spot, or just to get away.

Something fell to the ground in the alley behind her, and Aloy spun, watching for trouble. A woman eased out of the shadows, wearing heavy face paint and clothes that looked too warm for this time of year. She had several knives in her belt and a spear strapped over her shoulder.  

“Hunter,” she said. “You are the one sent by the Sheriff, yes?”

“I am,” Aloy said tightly. It was unwise to trust people who came out of the shadows in alleyways. Many creatures had the ability to pass as human.

“She sent me this way… I asked for a glorious hunt, and she said that you could provide.”

“I work best alone,” Aloy said.

The woman smiled, her teeth glinting. “And yet you are not alone now, so my work will have to make up for what you lose in the presence of others.”

She came closer, and Aloy’s grip tightened on her bow. She lifted an eyebrow.

“You do not trust me? Wise, though I do not understand this way of your people.”

She pulled an iron blade from her pouch and pressed it against her arm, cutting into it slightly. Then she passed a lighter over her fingers, letting the flame linger. “Not fae nor beast nor vampire – only human.”

Aloy nodded once, slightly mollified by the tests. “Even so, I don’t want anyone to come with me.”

“My name is Aluki,” the other woman said, ignoring her.

“I won’t split the bounty with you,” Aloy said, half in desperation.

Aluki laughed. “I don’t want money – I only require the hunt.”

“Let me cast a spell on you,” Aloy finally grumbled. “It’ll tell me if you’re human.”

“A witch?” Aluki asked as Aloy grabbed ingredients from her pouches.

“Something like that,” Aloy said. “I’m self taught.”

“That’s dangerous, but thrilling,” Aluki pointed out. Aloy shrugged, muttering over the bottle she’d shoved everything into. It glowed a bright blue.

“A good colour,” Aluki said.

Aloy poured a drop onto Aluki’s skin, and it flashed blue before turning clear.

“You are human,” Aloy sighed. “I suppose you can call me Aloy. I won’t watch out for your sorry ass, got it? Don’t get yourself killed.”

Aluki slowly raised an eyebrow, amused.

Aloy swore under her breath as she continued to follow the track. Aluki was better at tracking without any spells, so Aloy let her take the lead, her eyes peeled for any danger nearby. Aluki trod forward in a practised, easy way that reminded Aloy of a cat. Her weight was evenly distributed and she moved with an ease that Aloy couldn’t help but stare at.

With their quickened pace, Aloy thought that they might be gaining on the creature. Aluki stiffened, and a moment later Aloy heard it too – a crunch in the distance, like a bin had just gotten it’s lid torn off and was now being devoured.

She exchanged a glance with Aluki. Slowly, they both drew their weapons. Aluki’s spear began to glow and drip water, which froze as soon as it hit the ground. Together, they moved forward.

Rounding the corner, Aloy spotted their prey. It was big – big enough that she could admit that she would have had trouble taking it down alone. The claws were wickedly sharp and fire dripped from it’s mouth. It’s large ears swiveled, probably hearing their footsteps. It turned, and Aloy watched as it’s eyes went from gleaming blue to a deep, ruby red.

The creature spat fire and crouched. Aloy recognised that position – it was like a tiger, about to pounce. She grabbed some herbs from her second to last pouch, combined them with some crushed quartz and yelled an incantation as she threw it in a wide arc in front of her.

The creature charged forward in a blazing burst of speed that boggled Aloy’s mind. She’d barely gotten out of the way in time, but it had gone straight through her spell, and now was turning in a circle as it tried to get the sticky substance off itself.

“I recognise it!” Aluki yelled. “A scorcher! They’re common where I’m from. Aim for the eyes, and don’t use explosions – it’s weak to ice!”

Well, Aloy was glad that her dumb looking ice spear was going to come in handy then. Aluki charged forward and Aloy let her attract the scorcher’s attention as she pulled back her bowstring. An arrow appeared between her fingers, and Aloy mumbled a few words to change the magic in it to ice before loosing it at the scorcher.

Between Aluki’s ice spear, which froze everything it touched, and Aloy’s ice spelled arrows, the scorcher was soon covered in ice. It attempted to roll to rid itself of some of it, and Aloy saw her chance.

“Get back!” she yelled. Aluki ignored her, sprinting in to get a shot on its belly. Aloy cursed and then summoned a triple shot, snarling out the spell that would superchage these arrows. It took a lot longer than she liked, but it was perfect for dealing heavy damage on downed enemies.

She loosed the triple shot, and it sunk deep into the scorchers belly. The scorcher yowled, but rolled upright and clawed at Aluki, who only just dodged out of the way in time. Aloy grabbed some beads and dipped them into another pouch, bringing them out coated in honey. She said a spell over it hastily, and then threw the beads towards the scorcher.

They expanded midair, the balls growing to the size of melons and then sticking to the scrorcher.

“Don’t touch the balls!” Aloy yelled. “They’ll stick to whatever they touch! Get the scorchery to roll over again!”

She’d made Aluki’s job harder – she would have to avoid the balls as well as deal in close quarters with the scorcher, who was already breathing fire and clawing at her at a phemonenal speed. But Aloy hadn’t promised her an easy fight. Aluki drove the spear into it’s chest, pinning it in place. Aloy said a spell under her breath and time seemed to slow down as she aimed. Time wasn’t actually effected – that would have required a much larger and more powerful spell. But Aloy could enhance her own senses for a scant few seconds to make everything clearer and sharper in the time she needed to aim.

The arrow sunk into the scorcher’s eye, and the creature fell, dead. Aloy sucked in a breath. Well, apart from the very beginning of the fight where she was almost decapitated by the scorcher’s flaming claws, she hadn’t really been in much danger thorughout. Aluki had taken the brunt of the scorcher’s attention, and seemed to have come out the other side alright.

Aloy wondered over to the scorchers side. Her three heavy arrows were still embedded in its belly, slowly fizzing away. The rest were gone, leaving open wounds that had bled and weakened the scorcher during the fight.

“You fight well,” Aluki acknowledged. “Even for a witch.”

Aloy bristled. “What does that mean? You didn’t like my help? It wasn’t good enough for you?”

“It was good enough,” Aluki said, standing and facing her. Aloy licked her lips as she took in the other woman’s appearence – blood stained and dirty, but her eyes shone wild. “But the best hunters fight with their hands alone,” Aluki commented lowly, eyes dark and low, dangerous.

“Those are funny looking hands,” Aloy remarked, staring at Aluki’s spear.

Aluki barked out a laugh. “Even so. You are right – I am not the hunter that I aspire to be. But I hope to be her, one day. Only through trial can I survive to grow that long, however.” She looked at Aloy. “Do you need proof of the hunt?”

Aloy nodded, and used a boiling arrow to slice the paw of the scorcher off. She put it in a pouch. “That’ll be enough. Ersa knows me, and knows that I wouldn’t bullshit her.”

Aluki nodded. “The way that you fight pleases me, hunter.”

“Even though I fight with magic?” Aloy asked, amused.

Aluki inclined her head. “I will be in this city for the forseeable future. Perhaps we will hunt together again... or enjoy more clandensine activities together.”

So she _had_ been checking Aloy out. Aloy grinned, teeth shining in the low light. Beside them, the spoils of their hunt lay – behind them, the city lived and thrived, magic pounding through it’s bones. The night sky was filled with stars, and creatures that winged overhead, sharp eyes taking in the figures in the alleyway.

“That sounds like an excellent idea to me,” Aloy said, voice curling and sharp, pleased. Aluki laughed – low, quiet. A threat.

Aloy looked forward to meeting her challenge.

**Author's Note:**

> I love urban fantasy AUs so much
> 
> so can you tell that I like women who can kick my ass yet or


End file.
